Improvement in corsets



M. W. HENI'US.

CORSET.-

No.188,630, Patented March 20,1877.

WITNZSSgS ATTOR N EYS.

N.PETERS, PHDTD-UTHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON, D 0.

UNITED STATES PATENT QFFIGE.

MAX W. HENIUS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO MORITZ COHN, OF SAMEPLACE.

IMPROVEMENT -lN CORSETS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1 88,630, dated March20, 1877; application filed November 4, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, MAX W. HENIUs, of the city, county, and State of NewYork, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Corsets and I dohereby declare that the following specification, taken in connectionwith the drawings making a part of the same, isa full, clear, and exactdescription thereof.

In the more expensive varieties of corsets, Whether hand-made or wovenupon a jacquardloom, those portions of the corset which are made convex,or of a shape to conform to the figure of the wearer at the breast andat the hips, are furnished with short pockets of variable lengths, andconverging toward each other, for the insertion of whalebones to givestiffness to the article at such places.

In the common varieties of cheap woven corsets it is customary to omitthese short pockets in order to ch'eapen the cost of man ufacture, toenable the article to be furnished at a low price. The consequence ofthe omission of such pockets is, that at the breast and at the hipsthere will exist triangular sections of plain woven fabric, which willnot have any other stiffening than that which is the result of theoperation of starching and ironing the corset.

My invention has for its object the production of a corset in which thegore portions or triangular spaces at the breast or at the hips, whichare not supported by whalebones, are sufficiently stiffened by embossedcorrugations made in the cloth after it has been starched, whereby, at atrifling increased cost, this cheap grade of corsets is made in thisparticular as serviceable as the more costly kinds, for the reason thatsuch embossed corrugations of the cloth form an efficient substitute forbone supports at such places. Incidentally, too, a highly ornamentalefi'ect may by this means be given to the corset.

Figure 1 represents a front view of a finished corset made with myimprovement. Fig. 2 is a sectional profile view, upon an enlarged scale,through the embossed portion of one of the halves of the corset, in adirection transverse with the length of the corset, (indicated by lineav :20.)

The corset-blank is made from cloth by hand, or is fashioned in theprocess of weaving on a jacquard-loom, in the usual manner, and isprovided with the necessary number of long or body-bone pockets.Allowance should be made for what will be the diminished measure of thecorset around the breast and hips after it has been embossed, byinserting a few more picks of filling at the gores, which form the swellof the breast and hips, if the corset-blank be fashioned on a loom, orby inserting little larger gore-pieces if the corset be hand-made. Afterthe corset has been completed to the stage when it comes fromthelaundry, itis then, in its starched condition, subjected tosuflicient pressure between dies, which may, if preferred, be heated bysteam or otherwise, to raise upon the said portions of the corset whichare not adequately supported by stiiiening-bones the embossedcorrugations, as illustrated in the drawing, the eliect of which will beto greatly stiffen the fabric at such places. The pressure of such diesshould be so great and the operation should be so performed that'theembossing or corrugations will remain as a permanent quality of thecorset, and this can easily be accomplished when the cloth has been wellfilled with suitable starch.

By the term corset I mean an article which has been fashioned to suitthe shape of the bust, and is provided with long pockets for containingwhalebones or other suitable material, to give stiffness to it, andenable the article to impart symmetry to the figure.

I do not claim, broadly, the stiffening effect which results fromcorrugating or embossing a material; neither do I claim the aestheticeffect which results from ornamentally embossing an article; but

What I do claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

1. :The improvement in the art of manufacturing corsets which consistsin corrugating by embossing, as described, those portions of a corsetwhich compose the breast or hip gores, as a means for supporting andgiving stifi'ness and elasticity to the corset at such places, anddispensing with the necessity of supporting-bones for such gores,substantially as described.

2. A corset, as a new article of manufac- In testimony whereof Ihereunto sign my ture, in which the gores of the fabric, to conname inthe presence of two subscribing witform to the shape of the figure atthe breast nesses.

or at the hips, are stiffened by embossed cor- MAX W. HENIUS. rugations,as described, at such places, as a Witnesses: substitute for whaleboneor other supports, HENRY T. BROWN,

substantially as specified. BENJAMIN W. HOFFMAN.

